This invention relates to a method for lessening restenosis of body lumens and to intraluminal stents having anti-thrombosis and anti-restenosis properties.
Restenosis is the reclosure of a peripheral or coronary artery following trauma to that artery caused by efforts to open a stenosed portion of the artery, such as, for example, by balloon dilation, ablation, atherectomy or laser treatment of the artery. For these angioplasty procedures, restenosis occurs at a rate of about 20-50% depending on the definition, vessel location, lesion length and a number of other morphological and clinical variables. Restenosis is believed to be a natural healing reaction to the injury of the arterial wall that is caused by angioplasty procedures. The healing reaction begins with the thrombotic mechanism at the site of the injury. The final result of the complex steps of the healing process can be intimal hyperplasia, the uncontrolled migration and proliferation of medial smooth muscle cells, combined with their extracellular matrix production, until the artery is again stenosed or occluded.
In an attempt to prevent restenosis, metallic intravascular stents have been permanently implanted in coronary or peripheral vessels. The stent is typically inserted by catheter into a vascular lumen and expanded into contact with the diseased portion of the arterial wall, thereby providing mechanical support for the lumen. However, it has been found that restenosis can still occur with such stents in place. Also, the stent itself can cause undesirable local thrombosis. To address the problem of thrombosis, persons receiving stents also receive extensive systemic treatment with anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs.
To address the restenosis problem, it has been proposed to provide stents which are seeded with endothelial cells (Dichek, D. A. et al Seeding of Intravascular Stents With Genetically Engineered Endothelial Cells; Circulation 1989; 80: 1347-1353). In that experiment, sheep endothelial cells that had undergone retrovirus-mediated gene transfer for either bacterial betagalactosidase or human tissue-type plasminogen activator were seeded onto stainless steel stents and grown until the stents were covered. The cells were therefore able to be delivered to the vascular wall where they could provide therapeutic proteins. Other methods of providing therapeutic substances to the vascular wall by means of stents have also been proposed such as in international patent application WO 91/12779 "Intraluminal Drug Eluting Prosthesis" and international patent application WO 90/13332 "Stent With Sustained Drug Delivery". In those applications, it is suggested that antiplatelet agents, anticoagulant agents, antimicrobial agents, anti-inflammatory agents, antimetabolic agents and other drugs could be supplied in stents to reduce the incidence of restenosis. Further, other vasoreactive agents such as nitric oxide releasing agents could also be used.
In the vascular graft art, it has been noted that fibrin can be used to produce a biocompatible surface. For example, in an article by Soldani et al., "Bioartificial Polymeric Materials Obtained from Blends of Synthetic Polymers with Fibrin and Collagen" International Journal of Artificial Organs, Vol. 14, No. 5, 1991, polyurethane is combined with fibrinogen and cross-linked with thrombin and then made into vascular grafts. In vivo tests of the vascular grafts reported in the article indicated that the fibrin facilitated tissue ingrowth and was rapidly degraded and reabsorbed. Also, a published European Patent Application 0366564 applied for by Terumo Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, Japan, discloses a medical device such as an artificial blood vessel, catheter or artificial internal organ which is made from a polymerized protein such as fibrin. The fibrin is said to be highly nonthrombogenic and tissue compatible and promotes the uniform propagation of cells that regenerate the intima. Also, in an article by Gusti et al., "New Biolized Polymers for Cardiovascular Applications", Life Support Systems, Vol. 3, Suppl. 1, 1986, "biolized" polymers were made by mixing synthetic polymers with fibrinogen and cross-linking them with thrombin to improve tissue ingrowth and neointima formation as the fibrin biodegrades. Also, in an article by Haverich et at., "Evaluation of Fibrin Seal in Animal Experiments", Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgeon, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 215-22, 1982, the authors report the successful sealing of vascular grafts with fibrin. In the copending application Ser. No. 08/079,222, it is disclosed that the problem of restenosis can be addressed by the use of fibrin in an intravascular stent. However, it would be desirable to provide a fibrin-based stent in which the fibrin has consistent elasticity and strength. It would also be desirable to provide a method for producing fibrin-based stents of uniform construction.